Why? My pastor, Geoffrey Lentz, says it’s because following Jesus in social justice is hard and demanding and might mess up our lifestyes: What would happen if we “let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everlasting stream” (Amos)? It wouldn’t work out very well for me. This one hits us right where…
Via Dave Black Online and Nick’s blog I found that biblioblogger Nick Norelli’s church, Harvest of Souls International Ministries, has a new web site. Now why do I link to this particular church web site at this moment? Is it merely to congratulate them? Well, I do congratulate them, but I had something more specific…
From the Wesley Report: Mainline Protestant Christianity has become known for leaving people in slavery, because somewhere along the way, our strategy changed from leading people out of Egypt to planting churches along the Nile. And that’s why mainline denominations continue to lose members. People don’t need churches to help them stay in slavery– they…
That’s what Allan Bevere suggests as the ordination process, based on his experience in Cuba. I find the idea attractive, at least for certain types of ministry. There might be other ways to test various gifts. It does relate to a problem I’ve noted amongst United Methodist ministers, many of whom come out of seminary…
Ex-UMC, now megachurch pastor Craig Groeschel offers six suggestions for the United Methodist Church, packaged in six brief blog posts. I think that there is much worth considering in his suggestions, though I don’t think they are generally all that new. There’s something that bothers me in the whole discussion, however. In practically every debate…
I already responded to one post by Michael Patton on this topic (Am I a Complementarian?), but he followed this up with a question. I have been so busy with the release of my latest book (co-authored with Geoffrey Lentz) that I have fallen well behind the progress of this topic, but I still want…
Michael Patton has taken it upon himself to define both complementarianism and egalitarianism and I think he gets it almost completely wrong. Now I must note that I really like reading Michael Patton’s blog posts and I think he writes with an irenic tone that promotes Christian unity, and in the end he does that…
Read about it here. My ancestors were Mennonite, so perhaps I should be offended. Not so much! His own title for the post ends with “… and they liked it.” He was asking them to go storm the gates of hell, i.e. areas of the world that are under the dominion of Satan. He suggests…
I posted a note on my company blog about a personal connection.
Dave Black posts a picture of his colleague Alvin Reid (look for 6:56 AM, Thursday, January 21), who appears with Dave’s favorite reptile (and I assume Alvin’s as well, but what do I know?) It looks to me like the Baptists are descending into snake handling. Who could have predicted that? Actually, the occasion is…
